


Ezra's Beautiful Mind

by JewellTrim



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Childhood Memories, Past Child Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Sad Ending, Self-Reflection, Teen Pregnancy, Walk Into A Bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-10-15 11:11:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 14,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10555334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JewellTrim/pseuds/JewellTrim
Summary: Ezra walks into a bar, not anticipating the events that happen afterwards...





	1. Chapter 1

“What you looking at?”  
Those were the words that had all started it.

 

“Pardon my rudeness for appearing to be staring at you. I am the last person to judge anyone here.” Ezra said, giving the pissed off blond a salute with his shot glass of beer.  
The man only gave a low growl as he went back to his drink. On his left hand, the man was fingering his wedding band. From his clothes, Ezra couldn’t tell what his occupation was. The all black outfit could mean anything.  
“Was it the work place that drove you to drink?” Ezra couldn’t help his curiosity.  
The man pulled something from out his wallet and tossed it on the bar in a way of an answer. Ezra looked it over with a raised eyebrow. A sobriety coin.   
“Haven’t drank in three years.”  
“It would be a shame to break that tonight, wouldn’t it?”  
“Ain’t drinking.” The man moved the drink in his hand, “Usually just sit here every night with a shot glass, questioning myself if today’s the day I give in.”  
Ezra looked down at his own drink, “I don’t claim to know your circumstances but, I think whoever you are being sober for must think it’s worth it not to give up.”  
The man looked at Ezra and then back at his drink. He pushed it to the dark-skinned bartender.  
“You can toss it, Nathan. Seems I’ll be sober another sunrise.” He nodded to Ezra before walking out.  
The bartender took the drink and poured out the contents, “Thanks for that.”  
“Sometimes we all just need a reminder.” Ezra smiled.  
“Chris has been down here every day, staring at his drink. Almost caved a couple of times.”  
“Glad I could help.” Ezra nodded and finished up his drink before heading out himself. He caught a glimpse of another bartender, a female watching him while cleaning the bar. He gave her a smile before pushing the door open and walking into the night.


	2. Chapter 2

The next night found Ezra in the bar again. Sitting up front was sober fighting Chris, still looking at a glass. Ezra shook his head and ordered himself a beer before looking around. He did catch Chris’s eye once and the blond gave him a nod and pushed away his glass before walking out. The victory shown on that man’s face was barely visible but Ezra caught it. That and the gratitude. At the pool table were two men talking loudly. One of them was about seven years at least younger than the other man.   
Figuring he could try to play a game with them, he walked on over and got their attention.  
“Would either of you be interested in a game?” he smiled.  
The younger gave a bright smile, “Yeah, sure! Grab a stick.”  
Ezra did and the other man collected all the balls and put them in the triangle. The younger man broke first.  
“Names JD, that’s Buck.” The younger man said, jabbing a thumb at the man with a mustache.  
“Ezra.” Ezra nodded to both men after taking his turn.  
“So,” JD took his turn, knocking in one of his solids, “I haven’t seen you here before yesterday.”  
“Thought I might try out a new locale.” Ezra said, one of the corners of his mouth lifting to smile.  
“Well it’s nice to get new faces in here.” Buck smiled as he drank his beer. He turned back to the bar where the female bartender was working on someone’s order.  
JD rolled his eyes, “Would you forget it. She is just going to ignore you.”  
“I’m always up for a little challenge.”   
“Are you attempting to make a conquest with the lovely bartender over there?” Ezra rose an interested eyebrow.  
JD huffed and knocked in another solid but the white ball went in too, ending his turn. “Don’t encourage him. He’s been saying the same thing, and she keeps on ignoring him. She might as well be deaf and Buck invisible.”  
“That’s because you wouldn’t understand love if it came at you with flashing neon signs.” Buck snorted.  
“Well it’s the same for you and jokes. You have no sense of humor.” JD snapped.  
Ezra knocked down two of his stripes and drank some of his beer. He watched as the two bickered.  
“JD, you couldn’t tell a good joke if you tried telling it to a pack of hyenas. Hell, they wouldn’t laugh at your jokes either, and they laugh all the time!”  
The two glared at each other for a while and then JD turned to Ezra.  
“Alright Ezra, you can be the judge.”  
“Oh this is going to be good.” Buck said, crossing his arms over his chest.  
“So a three-legged dog walked into the bar and he asked the bartender, ‘I’m looking for the man who shot my paw.’” JD chuckled and waited for Ezra to get it.  
Ezra wanted to groan out loud, but restrained the feeling and drank some of his beer before looking at JD, “I’m sorry, but that has got to be the worse joke I’ve heard.”  
“Maybe you don’t get it. He’s got three legs and—”  
“No, I got it. I just don’t find it all that amusing. Perhaps if I were a little more intoxicated.”  
“You guys have no sense of humor whatsoever.” JD shook his head.  
Ezra chuckled they finished up the rest of the game with Ezra sinking the eight ball. He said his goodbyes to them and watched from the door as Buck tried to talk to the female bartender. The woman did ignore Buck, but the man continued to try. Ezra just shook his head.  
The man was persistent. He had to give him that.


	3. Chapter 3

When Ezra came into the bar, that night, he saw Chris playing pool with Buck while JD stood with them. Not ready for anymore bad jokes and women. Instead he was drawn to the sound of thumping. Nathan nodded towards him as the female bartender gave him a beer.  
“Care for a game?” asked the slender man playing darts.  
“I can’t promise you a good game.” Ezra smiled.  
“You think you can beat me?” the man chuckled.  
Ezra took a dart that was on the table and saluted the man with it before throwing it to hit the bull’s eye. “I believe that right there speaks for my capability.”  
“Okay then. Let’s give it a shot.”  
The game lasted several rounds. Vin winning first and then Ezra. The last game ended in a tie.  
“You ain’t as bad as I thought you would be.” The man grinned.  
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”  
The man held out his hand, “Name’s Vin.”  
“Ezra.”  
“I Know, I saw you talking to Buck, JD and Chris.”  
“You know them?”  
“Yeah. Talked to them a couple of times. Chris seems better after talking to you.” Vin looked over at the blond.  
“Appears that way.”  
Vin nodded and then sat down on the table near his darts. “So why are you here?”  
Ezra frowned, not sure what he meant, “Last time I checked this was a public bar.”  
“It is, it’s just that out of all the bars you chose in this town you chose this one. You talk to us out of nowhere like we’re friends. Shouldn’t you be worried about what we might do to you?”  
“I didn’t know my life was in danger.”  
“Chris, he’s a widower. Lost his wife and son. Buck is a friend of Chris’s, hanging around to make sure he is doing alright. JD, hell, I don’t know the kid may have some sort of crush on one of the two, I don’t know.”  
“And you?”  
“Me, I have people who want to kill me.” Vin smiled.  
“Really?” Ezra rose an eyebrow.  
Vin shrugged, “This is the only place I can find peace. Where no one will find me, other than you it seems.”  
Ezra just shook his head, “Why don’t I don’t buy you a drink?”  
“I’d never say ‘no’ to that.” Vin grinned and they walked to the bar. Vin signaled to Nathan and the man got him a beer.  
The female bartender eyed him curiously and Ezra frowned.  
“Is there a reason why that woman looks at us so?”  
“She ain’t looking at me that way. Must be you.” Vin murmured.  
“I doubt Buck would appreciate that that much.”  
That made both men laugh.  
Ezra’s phone went off and he saw that it was his mother calling. He groaned, “Sorry, I should probably take this.” He decided that it was as good as any time to call it a night. Talking to his mother would probably take an hour.


	4. Chapter 4

Ezra came into the bar in the morning. He knew only bad drunks started this early, but he needed the drink. After receiving a call that his mother was coming into town in a day’s time, he wanted to prepare for it.  
A big man was at a booth staring at a game of chess. Ezra sat at the bar near where Nathan was cleaning when he decided to walk on over.  
“I see you have the Queen cornered.” Ezra gestured to the piece.  
“Yes.” The man smiled up at him, “It can be difficult to play against yourself.”  
“Indeed.” Ezra said, sitting across from him, “Out witting yourself can prove quite the battle. Have you figured out which side is winning?”  
“Not yet.” Chuckled the man. “I wouldn’t mind starting anew and playing against you.”  
“It’s as good as any time to brush up on my skills as any.”

The two played for hours, Ezra learning his name was Josiah. They talked, mostly about Josiah’s life since Ezra wasn’t too keen to share his. Chris came in his usual time, sitting in front of his shot glass. Buck and JD came next, already arguing as they came through the door. Vin was last, shaking off the rain that had started to down pour. Ezra was surprised at the change in the forecast and wished he had brought an umbrella.  
Ezra greeted the others and after a bit of chatting, they all ended up sitting at the corner table. He found that he enjoyed their company. They were all pretty lively. Nathan came and joined them when he went on break.  
Sighing, Ezra grunted that he was going to get another beer as he stood up. Vin watched him for as Buck told him to throw in a good word for him to the female bartender.  
Ezra smiled at the woman as he approached, “Jack Daniels.”  
She nodded and returned with the bottle, charging it to his open tab. He took his drink and paused, trying to understand why she kept looking at him strange.  
“Is there something on my face?” he joked as an attempt to start a conversation.  
“No mister. Just fascinated is all.” She said, but she didn’t seem fascinated.  
“With what exactly?” Ezra frowned.  
“You mister. You have a very active imagination.”  
Ezra chuckled lightly and cleared his throat, “Sorry I don’t know to what you are referring to.”  
“Well, for the four days now, you’ve been chatting away, like you’re on the take or something.”  
“Excuse me?” Ezra’s volume became a little higher.  
“Ezra, you coming man?” called Buck.  
Ezra turned around to see the others waiting for him.  
He started to walk over to them when he heard her, “Maybe you shouldn’t be drinking.”  
He casted one look back at her before reaching the table again and sitting down. The rest of the time he spent with his new friends he was quiet. Vin watched him silently a bit of worry on his face.

Inez closed her bar and locked the doors. She turned to walk to her car and jumped a little when she saw the man from the bar.  
“I own a Taser sir. That and I know self-defense.”  
“Those will not be necessary for me. I just wanted to finish our conversation from earlier.”  
Inez sighed, “About what?”  
“For starters you thought or think I’m on drugs.”  
“That was the only friendly reason I could think of.”  
“I’m not on drugs.” The woman looked a little sympathetic to Ezra and he shifted uncomfortably, “Why would you assume so?”  
“It was the only reason, the only nice reason, as to why you were talking to yourself for the past four days here.”  
“Talking to myself? I wasn’t—”  
“Sir, I’ve seen a lot of drunks come in here talking when they are drunk. Mumbling words and finishing left off conversations to whoever was supposed to be the real recipient. You, well you’ve been carrying on conversations with some invisible people. Giving them names, ‘playing’ pool with them and darts. Today was chess. Then you sat around a table and was laughing by yourself.” Inez felt horrible, watching the man grow pale, “Other customers think that there’s something wrong with you. I just tell them it’s drugs because I couldn’t think, I didn’t want to assume.”  
“That I’m schizophrenic. Is that what you were going to say.” Ezra swallowed the lump in his throat, “Well you’re wrong because they do exist. Nathan sees them.”  
“Who?”  
“Nathan, he works for you.” Ezra waved a hand frustrated at her.  
“There are no employees by that name.” Inez said, shaking her head. “Please, let me try to help you. I have a friend who has seen this before.”  
“Thank you, but you’re wrong. They are real. I’m not making this all up.”  
“Why don’t you try and look you friends up. See if you can find them.” Inez suggested.  
Ezra stiffly nodded his head before making his way to his car.  
At home, he didn’t wait before getting on his computer. He started out by typing in their names but his searches came up empty. Running his hand through his hair trying to think of something else to try. He didn’t have any of their numbers and didn’t know where any of them lived. Vin and Josiah’s little history about them didn’t include where they were from really.  
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I shall get answers.


	5. Chapter 5

Standish went to the bar at seven. He looked around the bar in search of the others. Inez, the bartender and owner was watching him while cleaning glasses. He walked up to her and ordered a beer.  
“Did you find anything?”  
“Not yet, but I will prove it that they are real tonight.” Ezra said confidently.  
Inez looked a little sympathetic which was a look Ezra hated.  
“Maybe it’s best you don’t push it. Forget them and move on…”  
“I don’t need to move on because they are real.”  
“And if you’re wrong. Is knowing worth the consequences? You could be rid of all of this if you just let go.”  
“Don’t you see I can’t!” Ezra shouted, gaining the attention of a few people around them. He lowered his voice again, dropping his head, “I can’t—just leave it alone. You don’t understand. These men were my friends. My,” Ezra swallowed the lump in his throat, “only compatriots. People who accepted me as one of their own and didn’t try to fix me.”  
Inez placed a hand over his and gave it a gentle squeeze, “These men don’t have to be the only friends you have. I’m sure you can make others. Just, just try and get some rest at home, hmm?”  
Ezra nodded and walked back out, though his heart ached to do so.  
In his apartment, he felt empty. His mother texted him that she had landed and was going to be there in an hour, but he didn’t bother to reply. She didn’t ask for his permission for anything anyway.  
Staring at the turned off television, he almost missed the sound of a knock at the door. Getting up and stretching a bit to appease the aching muscles, he walked over to the door expecting Maude. Instead he found Vin standing on the other side.  
“Vin? How did you? How?” Ezra stammered.  
“I can come in, right?” Vin asked, walking around the confused man and into the apartment.  
Ezra closed the door and turned to his unexpectant guest.  
“What are you doing here? How did you know where I live?”  
“Ez please, you and I both know that’s not the real question you want to ask.” Vin said, claiming a seat on the arm of the sofa.  
Ezra sat down on the couch across from him, “Am I the only one who can see you all?”  
“Yes.”  
Ezra took a minute to digest this information, “Okay, so are you like some form of ghost then?”  
“No.”  
“Then what are you?”  
“A figment of your imagination.” Vin watched as Ezra got up from his seat and began pacing the length of the room. He ran his hands through his hair and across his face. “Ezra, I wanted to tell you earlier, I tried to, but I just didn’t have the gut to come out with it.”  
“What? To say that I’ve gone crazy, is that it!” Ezra growled.  
“The others; Nathan, Chris, JD and Buck. They don’t know they aren’t real. Hell, Buck keeps flirting with the bartender and says she completely ignores him but he just doesn’t understand the truth.”  
“So you and Josiah have worked it out then.” Ezra was feeling like he was going off the deep in, talking to someone who isn’t real about another group of people who aren’t real.  
“Yeah, but you seemed so happy we agreed not to say anything. I mean who would question a drunk person talking to himself?”  
“Apparently, someone did.” Ezra hissed. Then a thought came to him. “What was that going on about Chris and the other’s background history?”  
“I thought it would repel you. Make you not want anything to do with us, but then the others got excited and continued to talk to you.”  
“How did this even happen? Was it because I came into the bar in the first place?”  
“It had not thing to do with the place, but your state of mind.” Vin said softly.  
“Again, it comes back to me losing my mind.  
“I’m just guessing you were just trying to figure something about your life and have created us to deal with those issues.”  
“What issues?” Ezra frowned.  
Just then the door buzzer rang and he looked at the time. His mother must be here. Ezra turned back to Vin, but he was gone. Disappeared. All if it made it clear that this wasn’t real and that something was definitely wrong with him.  
Opening the door again, he stepped aside as Maude came in with a flourish, talking about something he didn’t quite understand, and didn’t care about at the present. He did however put on a facade for her because he knew she didn’t care for such things like weaknesses. More specifically his weaknesses.  
When she had gone out for a night at the casinos here in town, he waited for Vin to return. Ezra was divided whether or not he really wanted him to come back. About ten minutes passed and nothing happened. He was about to give up when he saw Josiah and Vin this time. They sat in his kitchen and he had to keep himself from jumping from alarm.  
“So, about our conversation before. What issues would I be needing to overcome?” Ezra picked up from where he and Vin left off.  
“I’m assuming it is some events in your life that have been holding you back from truly moving on.” Josiah suggested.  
“Nothing is holding me back. I’m perfectly fine.”  
“Well, you best buckle in then for the long haul because if you’re not willing to deal with these issues then we may be here a while.” Vin sighed.  
“And that could drive you to go crazy.” Josiah said glumly.  
“This was never supposed to happen. I just wanted people who accepted me.” Ezra sank into his seat.  
“You just wanted friends, and your mind created us.”


	6. Chapter 6

Ezra decided, against his better judgement, to go back to the bar. He walked over to a table and say alone, not ordering a drink. Chris was the first one to come in. He was still wearing his habitual black and sat down at the bar. Nathan appeared from the back rooms and poured him a ‘drink’. Buck and JD were next, loud as usual, but Ezra noticed that no one registered their presence. Vin and Josiah were last, nodding to Ezra and approaching his table after getting ‘drinks’ from Nathan.  
“So what now?” Ezra said in a low voice, “I gather the others must be brought up to speed on what is going on.”  
“It’s your call Ez. This is your rodeo.” Vin said, giving him his full support either way he went.  
The rest of the group finally gathered over, Nathan taking a break from his ‘work’.  
“Gentlemen, I was recently made aware of something a bit unsettling.”  
“Just cut the crap then, Standish and spit it out.” Chris grunted.  
“I will ‘cut the crap’ as you say, mister Larabee, but it won’t change the seriousness of the subject.”  
“What is it Ezra?” JD asked, looking a little worried now.  
“You all are not real.” Ezra just came out and said it. Screw fancy words, they had to get it and he wouldn’t be able to say it more than once.  
“What?” Buck chuckled, “Is this some kind of joke.”  
“It’s not.” Vin murmured, saving Ezra the stress of repeating himself. “Bucklin, you’ve been trying to get that bartender’s attention for a while now, but she doesn’t so much as look at you. JD, when that guy took your chair that one time, it was because he doesn’t see you, only an empty chair. Nathan, don’t you find it strange that only we order drinks from you and no one else?”  
Everyone around the table fell silent.  
“So how come Ezra can see us?” Chris asked.  
“I made you all up apparently. I didn’t know I did, but all I know is, is that I can’t stop it.”  
“Damn,” Buck shook his head.  
“So does this mean we live in Ezra’s head, and if so, does that mean he will go crazy and then some people will try and erase us from his memory?” JD asked, openly scared.  
“Josiah and I think we can fix this by helping Ezra overcome whatever it is that had him create us.”  
“And what happens to us then?” Nathan frowned. “Will we cease to exist?”  
They all turned to Ezra who had just as much as idea of what was going on as them.  
Inez approached the table, “Did you need anything?”  
“No we… I mean I am good for now.” He had almost mentioned the others who were looking at her too. She looked at the empty table around the man, but didn’t say anything about it being that way to him.  
“I uh, see your friends are here.” She smiled in an attempt.  
Ezra was almost fooled that she had seen them, but then noticed that her eyes passed over everyone and she didn’t hear Buck trying to talk to her.  
“They um, well one of them says you are extremely beautiful.” Ezra gave a little smile and was relieved she returned it with one of her own.  
“You can tell him that flattery won’t get him anywhere with me.” She said before walking back to the bar.  
Chris shook his head, “Buck finally getting shut down, never thought I’d see the day.”  
“Whatever, it’s only because she can’t see my amazing looks, that’s it,” Buck crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.  
“Hell Buck, even if you were standing and saying that right to her face I doubt you’d have a chance.” JD snorted and received a knock on the back of the head by that person.  
“How about we move this conversation back to my abode? Vin, I’ll look for you and you can bring the rest I guess.”  
“You only have to want us to appear for us to show up.”  
That thought was a little nerve wrecking. He had seen movies where this sort of thing happened until it got out of hand and the visions started to take over.  
Ezra gave a slight nod to them before heading out. Inez looked up from her work serving another customer when he walked out of the building.


	7. Chapter 7

“So we are going to attempt the working theory of some conflict I am dealing with that made your ghostly form and I need to overcome it. That’s correct?” Ezra asked, pacing a little in his living room.   
Chris and Vin occupied the sofa while Buck, JD and Nathan had the couch. Josiah was sitting on the arm of the couch.  
“That’s the plan, slick.” Buck grinned.  
“The success of this plan is not very high.” Nathan murmured under his breath.  
“Thank you for your continued optimism there.” Vin rolled his eyes.  
“I’m just saying, this plan, could actually break his mind more.”  
“Hey,” Ezra shouted high enough to get both of their attention, “I’m standing right here.”  
“Yes you are, and you’re doing a very good job.” Buck chuckled.  
“Buck, can you please take this more seriously.”  
The door opened and Ezra turned to see his mother walk in, looking pleased with herself and talking about her latest winnings at the tables. Ezra’s eyes went a little wider with alarm and he looked to the others.  
“Calm down, Ez, remember she can’t see or hear us.” Vin said softly.  
Ezra turned to his mother, trying to put on a casual smile.  
“Mother, I didn’t expect you back so soon. Have you cleaned every man out of their money in one night?”  
“No Ezra, I simply have come for a change of clothes. I met a man who wants to take me out to dinner.”  
“I can only assume then that you didn’t tell him what your occupation is.” Ezra said, sitting on his coffee table.  
“I told him that I was an actress, waiting to make it on the big screen.” Maude laughed as she walked across the room and sat down where Vin and Chris already were.   
Ezra flinched a little, missing whatever she was saying about the man. Her purse, which no doubt was heavy from whatever she had won last night, was dropped where Vin’s crotch was at. Vin winced a little before disappearing. Chris left right after him.   
“Ezra, are you even listening to me?” Maude frowned when she noticed her son was staring at her bag.  
“Huh? I uh, no I’m listening.” He cleared his throat.  
“I must say you are distracted these days. Going out all hours of the day and night, but not to any casinos or cons. How do you even spend your time here?”  
“I go out for drinks.”  
“Drinks? You can drink at the casino. You can drink here. Why do you have to go somewhere that is not at all profitable, I’m assuming, to drink?”  
“To see my friends.”  
That made Maude laugh, “Friends? Since when did you need friends, Ezra?”  
That made Ezra stiffen.   
“How about growing up? You never let me have any. Dragging me to different relative’s houses. I never got the chance to be normal! To have friends!”   
“Ezra, friends are for the weak. You cannot afford to be weak in our line of business.”  
“I’m hardly in your line of business anymore, mother.” Ezra huffed.  
“To give up your skills would be a waste.” Maude bit.  
“Well it would be at least my decision to make.”  
“Ezra, please, calm down son.” Josiah said.  
Ezra stood up and walked to the kitchen. Vin and Chris were there sitting at the island.  
“She’s a real piece of work.” Buck grumbled, shaking his head.  
“Why is she so rude? Isn’t a mother supposed to be loving?” JD frowned.  
“Not every parent is the same.” Josiah tried to explain.  
Ezra slammed his fist on the island top, silencing everyone. He needed it to be silent to be able to collect his thoughts.  
“Darling boy, you remember I always say it’s best not to let your emotions get the best of you.”  
“So I can be like you? Someone who doesn’t even care for her own son?”  
“I don’t like this anymore. I’m feeling uncomfortable.” JD slinked back in his seat.  
“Then leave.” Ezra growled at him.  
Maude frowned in confusion and looked to where he was glaring at. There was no one there.  
“Have you been drinking tonight?”  
“No I have not, however I wish I had. So I could survive this night in dealing with your constant disappointment in the man I turned out to be.”  
JD winced and disappeared followed by Josiah and Buck.  
“Well then. Perhaps I shall leave a few days early to stay with my date.” Maude said, standing up to pack her things.  
Ezra waited until after his mother left his apartment before collapsing on the vacant couch.  
“Perhaps we should address the situation of our appearances later then.” Nathan suggested, “I’ll be leaving first then.” He nodded before disappearing.  
All that was left was Vin and Chris.  
“If it matters any, you’re a way better person than her.” Vin said after a few minutes of silence.  
“This coming from my imagination.”  
“To hell what she thinks.” Chris growled, “To hell what anyone thinks. You are your own man, Ezra. Don’t let those little shits control how you feel about yourself.”  
“I thank you for your attempts to make me feel better.” Ezra sighed. “I’d like to spend some time alone if that is alright.”  
Chris nodded and Vin and him disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Things are getting a little testy. I wonder what their plan will look like when they actually try?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry for taking so long to post the next chapter. Time to start diving into Ezra's past. Are you ready?

Ezra was sound asleep when he heard JD yelling in his ear, “Wake up, Ez! Time to start your day.”   
Shooting up in bed, he looked around for the source of the disturbance and found JD sitting at the foot of his bed with a huge grin. Ezra let out a groan and fell back down on his pillow.  
“JD, is there an emergency that requires me to get up at this ungodly hour, or have you taken upon yourself to torture me this early?”  
“We all figured it’s time to start dealing with you seeing things. Though I don’t really want to stop existing, I know it’s important for you to get better. For that reason, I volunteered to go first!”  
Ezra sighed and sat back up in his bed and rested his back against the headboard. “So who do we go about this, or does this require leg work?”  
“I can wait until you’re dressed.” JD bounced off the bed and left the room before Ezra could tell him anything else.  
Keeping his eyes away from looking at his clock to check the time, Ezra got dressed and used the bathroom before going into the kitchen where JD was sitting at the island. No words were said until after Ezra made himself some coffee and was sipping it.  
“Vin thinks that we are somehow connected to you in some way, so Josiah thought making contact with you could start things up.” JD explained, using hand gestures as he spoke.  
“Doesn’t sound too bad. I guess it is worth attempting. How will I know it worked?”  
JD shrugged, “I guessed you’ll feel a sense of closure and I disappear.” The last part was said with restrained fear.  
Ezra nodded and decided it was best just to get it over with. Grabbing the younger man’s hand, Ezra suddenly felt chilled. Though JD was a warm bubbly person, he never expected this sense of dread.  
He heard JD mumble something under his breath, “I will take you back now to your childhood. Before everything.”  
Ezra’s eye inadvertently closed and he was flooded with images of his past.  
~A young Ezra, no older than six, was studying the ground where a trail of ants were making their way to his dropped ice cream. His cheeks were streaked with tears, but he had since stopped crying and was watching with fascination at the growing clump around his chocolate mint ice cream.  
“Ezra? Ezra! Come here now!” came his mother’s voice and he looked up to see her standing on the steps of the house they lived in. He took one last look at the ants before running to his mother and stopped in front of her.  
“What on earth happened to your clothes?” she said in disapproval. “This is why you aren’t allowed to eat ice cream.”  
Ezra looked down at his clothes and caught sight of the drying ice cream that he had gotten on him. Around his mouth he had light green on his face.  
“I’m sorry.” He sniffed.  
“Go inside and wash up.” She ordered and he dipped passed her and to get cleaned up.

The scene changed and he was now ten years old. He was in one of his piano lessons when he heard a slamming door. Ezra flinched and hit the wrong ivory. Letting the music die, he sat on the bench and listened as his parents argued in the other room. His breathing hitched and he started to have trouble finding his breath. ~

Ezra pulled his hand away from JD and tried to steady himself. He was breathing hard as he came to as if he had been in a dream state.  
“Ezra?” JD whispered.  
“I don’t want to do this anymore.”  
“But Ezra, you need to—”  
“I said I’m finished for the day.” Ezra pushed himself away from the island and grabbed his keys before heading out of his apartment. He went straight for the bar and stayed there till closing time. None of the others appeared during that time.  
When he got back to his apartment, he had expected to see JD still there, waiting for him, but there was no sign of the young man.  
Ezra went to his fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.  
“Ezra.” Came the raspy voice of Vin.  
Ezra didn’t turn around, but drank from his bottle and continued to stare at the fridge door.  
“No one said this was going to be easy.”  
“No, not easy. Impossible.” Ezra turned and threw a glared at Vin. “No one said that this was going to happen.”  
“Sifting through shitty experiences in life however is what you may need right now.” Vin looked down at his feet, “You don’t have to deal with what JD represents now, the others can go first, but you will have to before all of this is over.”  
Ezra sighed and ran a hand through his hair. When he looked up again, Vin was not there anymore.  
“Hell, I may go insane from visiting my old memories instead.”


	9. Chapter 9

None of the others tried anything for a couple of days. JD had been keeping his distance from Ezra, fearing the man didn’t want anything to do with him.  
One afternoon Buck came by himself. He had a soft smile playing on his lips.  
“Am I to assume you drew the shortest straw this time?” Ezra drawled.  
“One of has to go, figured I’m as good as any.”  
“Will the memories you contain be difficult to handle?”  
Buck frowned, as if thinking about it, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to show you, but I’m guessing it won’t be easy.”  
“Seems to be the consensus.” Ezra snorted.  
Buck held out his hand, allowing Ezra to decide if he wanted to accept it or not. Clasping his hand, Ezra closed his eyes, feeling the chill he felt when he touched JD.  
“What I have to show you, though it may be hard, is your mother.” Buck said in a low voice.

~The first thing Ezra noticed was that the memories were not his own. It was of his mother, but she was a teenager. She was laughing with her friends, walking home from school. Maude was smiling, not one of her fake smiles she put on for a con, but a true one.   
“Hey Maude, you coming to the party later tonight aren’t you?” asked one of her friends.  
“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it.” Came his mother’s voice, that sounded off without her heavy southern accent.   
He had once asked her where she was from originally, but she never told him. She sounded like she had a Bostonian accent.  
The scene changed and it was night. She was arriving at a party at a house. Maude went in with her friends and was surrounded by other teens who were drinking and doing drugs. Some girls were making out with guys near the walls while a cluster of people danced in the middle of the rooms. Maude’s friend nudged her.  
“I see Jamie is looking at you.” Giggled the girl.  
Maude turned and saw the boy in question. She smiled at him which must’ve been encouragement enough for him to approach. They talked for a while and then before the night was over they were making out and then in one of the bedrooms. His mother looked so happy.  
The scene changed again to Maude sitting down at the kitchen table listening as her father berated her over and over again and that she would have to get an abortion. There tears in her eyes, but they never fell as she stared straight ahead. Her mother stood off to the side, never coming to her rescue.   
When the scene changed again, she was in the hospital with James standing next to her.   
“Everything is going to be alright, Maude. You’ll see. He’s going to be strong and beautiful. He’s going to have your eyes and my charm.”  
Maude laughed at that and ten minutes later she was going into labor. When she held the baby in her arms for the first time, Maude fell all over again in love with her baby. James kissed her forehead and ran a hand over his son’s head.  
“What should we call him?” he asked.  
“I like the name Ezra.”  
“Ezra Patrick then. Patrick after your father since he passed—”  
“No, I don’t want him to have any association with that man.”  
“Maude, he’s dead now. Even though he was upset back then, I’m sure he would’ve loved little Ezra no matter what.”  
Maude still wanted to refuse.  
“How about he just have the letter P as his middle name?”  
“Fine.” She murmured. When little Ezra made a gurgling noise her smile returned.  
“Ezra P Standish. Welcome to your family. We’ve been waiting for you, son.”

The heartfelt scene changed and Maude was a few years older, carrying around a toddler who wouldn’t stop crying. She looked distressed. James soon came into the house and moved to take the wailing child away.  
“The electric company called again, James. They’re threatening to shut off our power.”  
“I know. Works just been hard.” James said tiredly, bouncing Ezra on his hip, and quieting him down.  
Maude looked a little annoyed by how easily he was able to pacify the toddler.  
“He likes you better.”  
“Nonsense.”  
“He always calms down for you, but is always crying when I try.” She sighed, “Maybe I should try and get a job. That way there will be two checks coming in.”  
“What about Ezra?” James frowned.  
“I can take a night shift at a diner and you can stay with him. I can ask one of my friends to help.”  
“Maude, your friends are taking classes at the college. They won’t have time to watch him.”

The scene changed and his father was no longer in the picture. Young Ezra was sitting on a bench reading while his mother was running her first con after meeting her new boyfriend who was a con-artist. She started to learn how to make it on her own and soon was running cons by herself, sometimes using her son. After her boyfriend broke up with her, she turned her cons to start targeting men who had money.   
A young Ezra asked why that was.  
“Because you can never trust men so I turn that trust they would have with me and use it against them.”  
Later scene had Maude on the phone receiving news that James had passed away. It was his mother calling her. Maude ended the call without so much as a tremble in her voice. She looked to Ezra who was asleep in the next room, but she didn’t tell him. Instead she allowed him the belief that his father was still out there somewhere. Meanwhile she had allowed herself to cry one last time before she shut off all feelings. ~

Buck released his hand and smiled at Ezra who opened his eyes, there were unshed tears in them.  
“Ain’t saying I don’t like her or that it’s any excuse how she treats you, but it’s always nice to know where you came from even it’s a not happy.” Buck said.  
“So what happens now?” Ezra murmured.  
Buck opened his arms and grinned. Ezra accepted the hug, but instead of feeling the chill again, Buck was warm. The solidity dissipated and it was like Buck was absorbed into him. It was a peace he hadn’t known he was missing. And it felt nice. Looking at the clock, Ezra was surprised that three hours passed. Heading to bed, he began to feel like he could get through the rest.


	10. Chapter 10

Ezra wasn’t sure who to expect next, but was nervous when he saw that it was Nathan. They sat on the couch, Nathan looking a little annoyed to be doing this.  
“I assure you, Nathan, that me taking in Buck has not damaged me in anyway.”  
“Well that’s Buck for you. He would be the easiest.” Nathan grumbled.  
“And you?”  
“I doubt I’ll be easy, but not as bad as JD I don’t think.”  
“Do you know what the others are?” Ezra leaned forward a bit, trying to get an idea what to expect.  
“No, only reason I know those two is because you tried to take in JD and you managed to take in Buck. The others aren’t sharing.”  
“I see.” Ezra sighed, “Well, shall we commence?”  
Nathan rolled his eyes and just placed his hand on Ezra’s shoulder heavily. The chill, Ezra was getting used to now.   
“I will now show you your lonely path through life.” Nathan spoke before images appeared. Ezra closed his eyes to concentrate.

~Ezra was about seven watching from the car window, the playground. The car had stopped at a light which provided Ezra with enough time to watch the children all screaming and laughing.  
“Mommy, can’t I play at the park?”  
“Heavens Ezra, that place is filthy with germs and other bodily fluids. Interacting with those children will do you no favors in life.” Maude said from the driver’s seat.  
The light turned green and Ezra watched as the playground went out of his line of sight. At home, he practiced his piano and then worked on his studies. He hardly went outside anymore after his mother had told him that the only reason he was to go outside was for his horseback riding and to go to and from places.  
Skipping a few years, he was in a boarding school. A younger Ezra, eager to make a first friend. However, the other children made fun of him for his ‘weird’ way of speaking. Other boys lost interest in him when they found he was only good at school and didn’t know how to play futbol or basketball. Even the smart kids didn’t want to talk to him, too busy studying for friends. So Ezra went through his short time at his boarding school by himself. When he was transferred after him and his mother moved, the same thing happened, and at the following school. He eventually gave up on having friends.   
His mother began to drop him off at distant relatives and friends’ houses while she went away. Any children he encountered at those homes never really played or talked to him. He was completely alone. That was until he started getting into drawing. There he created his friends. It was a secret he kept from his mother because there was nothing to gain from being an artist. After a while he started writing stories with his new friends and him going on adventures. When his mother found them scrolled out on pieces of paper on the floor, she tossed them all in the trash.  
Adult Ezra now never saw people as potential friends but as marks. He’d learned how to charm them into thinking they were friends, being interested in what they were before taking their money. After every con he would move to a different city or even state. He never settled down, never did anything that wasn’t about money. ~  
Ezra watched years go by of his life, being alone, sitting in a room full of people but never interacting with them. Then he felt the hand leave his shoulder.   
He looked up at Nathan, “Why show me this? Nothing has changed from then. I’m still incapable of making friends. More so because no one can trust a con artist.”  
“Make the effort, man, and don’t let her hold you back. Find that person and hold onto that for dear-fucking-life.”  
Ezra chuckled, “Thanks for the advice.”  
Nathan nodded, “Well, I guess this is goodbye then.”  
Nathan gave him a hug that soon left Ezra feeling a bit warmer as he sat alone.


	11. Chapter 11

Ezra was feeling more confident after Nathan. Maybe it was the after-effect of taking him inside and he felt warmer, or maybe it was just his new resolve to try harder.   
At the bar, he sat up front and watched as Inez talked to a customer before dropping of their drink.  
“You look better today.”  
“I certainly feel better.” Ezra said as he gave her a warm smile. “I’d like to thank you for helping me. For making me see what was really going on.”  
Inez’s smile faltered a little, “I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. You seem like a nice guy who just was lonely.”  
Ezra nodded, “Apparently with an active enough imagination to create six people.”  
“So… so do you not see them anymore?”  
“A few, I’m dealing with it at a gradual pace.”  
“Are you okay with that?”  
“How do you mean?”  
“Well,” Inez propped her elbows on the counter and leaned a little forward to take some of the weight off her feet, “you seemed really happy with your imaginary friends. I’d hate for you to be left alone with no one to talk to.”  
“I believe I’m talking to you currently.”  
“True.” She chuckled, “If you ever want to stay and chat, then I’m fine with that.”  
Ezra thanked her and drank some more from his bottle. In the corner of his vision, he saw JD, Vin and Josiah. JD only looked in his direction briefly before disappearing. It was like JD was now scared to be around him. Vin said something to Josiah before the big man was all by himself.  
“I think I should start heading out.” Ezra said, nodding his thanks before making his way to the door. He didn’t allow his eyes to watch Josiah, but kept them straight ahead.  
Once he reached his car and was inside did he finally let out a sigh.  
“So you are next, I presume.”  
“JD is still nervous, but we’ve come to an agreement on the order for the rest of us.”  
Ezra turned to look at Josiah in the passenger seat of his car. The man’s head was grazing the ceiling.  
“Who’s after you?”  
“Vin.”  
“Then Chris and JD last.”  
Josiah didn’t offer up an argument. Ezra fiddled with his keys in his hands.  
“Shall we begin then?”  
Josiah gave a warm smile and place a hand on the smaller man’s shoulder. It was cold, but Ezra ignored it and closed his eyes.  
“What I’m going to show you next, is your father.”  
~Ezra was thrown into the chaos of a party, one he strangely recalled from his mother’s memories. He saw the face of his father, one he hardly could recognize. The teenage boy was looking at Maude and was talking with his friends.  
“Go on over to her, man.”  
“I can’t just do that!”  
“Look, she’s looking this way.” Said one of the other boys.  
James caught Maude’s eyes and saw the smile cross over her face. He felt his friends slap him on the back for encouragement as he crossed the room.  
“Hey…Hey Maude. I uh, didn’t expect to see you here tonight.” He stammered nervously.  
“Couldn’t miss it.”  
James grabbed for something to say and noticed that she didn’t have a drink, “Want me to grab you a beer?”  
“I don’t drink.”  
“Oh, um. How about a soda?”  
“Sure, coke please.”  
James nodded eagerly and pushed his way through the crowd to get the drink. When he returned, and handed her the coke, the music was too loud to hear anything.  
“HOW ABOUT WE GO UPSTAIRS!” he shouted over the noise.  
Maude nodded and he almost leapt out of his skin when she took his hand. They moved through the sea of drunken teenagers and he felt her squeeze his hand. Once they were on the second floor, James wasn’t sure what to do next. Part of him wanted to kiss her, but he wasn’t sure she would like it. Instead of him making the first move, Maude was the one to kiss him. It was really quick and he barely was able to register that she had kissed him. Taking that as an invitation, he bent his head down and their lips connected once more, this time longer.   
He wasn’t sure how they ended up in the bedroom, but he faintly remembered clothes being pulled off. None of this was planned, but he figured since she wasn’t pulling back that she was okay with it.  
The scene changed and Ezra saw his father, still a teenager, moving down the hall of his school. The boy caught a glimpse of Maude and a grin crossed his face as he rose a hand to greet her. She didn’t look up, but passed right by him. Frowning, he went after her. After finding a private place to talk without having to worry about prying ears, he asked her what was wrong.   
To have her pour out her distress. Telling him that she was pregnant and that her father was planning on making her get a divorce or her other option was to be kicked out of the house.  
James tried to think of what to do. He was only a year older than her and was a senior.  
“Don’t worry. I’ll tell my mother. I’m sure she won’t mind if you come and stay with us. Everything is going to be just fine.” James placed a hand on her shoulder.  
“How do you know that?” Maude spat. “I’m going to be that girl who’s a teen mom. A loose girl who sleeps around and got knocked up!” she started to tremble and he pulled her into a hug.  
“If anyone tries to call you any of those then I’ll beat the shit out of them.”

When the scene changed and he was at his graduation, he got the exciting news that Maude was going to the hospital to get ready to deliver the baby. He had been really excited. More so than actually graduating. After school, he worked at the auto-shop near his house. The next step would be to save up money for his family. At the hospital, he walked with his mother, wanting to urge her to move faster so he could find Maude. The plans for proposing had been delayed with the pressure to pass his classes and graduate, then work to actually buy the ring. He wanted it to be special, for his special lady.  
Maude looked a little scared. All by herself in the room, but when he arrived she smiled with relief.  
“Seems he has really bad timing. I hope you were able to get your diploma.”  
“Yeah. It just finished when I got the call.” James sat down in the seat next to her. She looked just as beautiful as the day he first saw her. “First word I’m going to teach him is ‘sorry’ so he can say it to his mommy for making her worry.”  
“Stop messing around.” She said, not really upset.  
After the baby was safely in her hands and James was allowed back in, he was mesmerized by the scene in front of him.  
“How are you guys?”  
“We’re okay.” Maude looked up and smiled. “Want to see him?”  
James looked down and saw the little guy squirming in his mother’s arms.  
“What about his name?” He figured she wanted to name him.  
“Ezra. I like that name.”  
“Ezra Patrick. After your father since he passed—”  
“NO! He won’t have any association with that man.” Maude began to get distressed again.  
Since there was no chance she would change her mind, he suggested the name be Ezra P Standish. Though they weren’t married yet, he figured she wouldn’t mind if he had his last name.   
The happiness only lasted a while before the two teens began to get overwhelmed with responsibility. James spent more time away from his family than he did with them. He didn’t like his jobs, but it wasn’t an option anymore. While some of his friends would invite him to events, he would always have to turn them down. At night, he’d listen to Maude’s light snores and baby Ezra before Ezra woke up in a fuss. Though he was tired and his body ached, James would pull himself out of bed to spend time with his son. He would dance around the room with Ezra against his chest, humming a lullaby. Everything he needed was right there.  
When they finally moved out of his mother’s basement and got their own place after his twenty-second birthday, he found the new weight of mortgage and other bills piling on him. As Ezra grew, the toddler began to have a preference for him, to Maude’s frustration. Maude began to get irritable and after suggesting that she take a job, James was at a lost at what to do. She grew more distant towards their son as she sought out the opportunity of temporary freedom. Though they were married now, she still acted like she was single sometimes.   
“Why are you acting like this?” James asked in frustration. He was standing behind Maude as she looked herself over in the mirror after putting on lipstick.  
“What? Acting like I’m still young? It’s because I am.”  
“But you’re also a mother.”  
Maude looked to Ezra who was asleep in another room.  
“I’m twenty years old. Just because I have a kid doesn’t mean I can go out with friends.”  
“You hardly spend time with Ezra. My mother said you’d drop him off at her house.”  
“She likes him and he likes it there.” Maude shrugged.  
“Maude.”  
“My friends are here. We can talk about this later.” She said as she sprang up from her seat and was gone.  
James sighed.  
The next scene James was gaping as he tried to understand what she had said.  
“Take some time apart?”  
“Like a pause.”  
“Pause? We’re married!”  
“And neither of us are happy in this marriage.” James felt the sting of the blow. “This will give you a chance to explore other relationships.”  
“What about Ezra?”  
“I can take care of him. I know a friend who has her child go to this school where they teach discipline and will have other opportunities to learn different languages and instruments—”  
“He’s only nine!”  
“It’s better to start young. I wish I had started that young. There are more opportunities available to him. It would be a shame to keep him from them.” James wasn’t entirely sure about this plan. “I already had some free time to be independent. You should too.”

James was in his late twenties, now separated from Maude. He had found a girlfriend who reminded him of the innocent Maude that he had known in high school. He tried to stay in contact with Ezra, sending him letters and pictures of his travels. Maude had told him once that Ezra was reading and writing really well for his age. He found it weird that he barely got a response, but figured Ezra was too busy with his friends to write. The day he had declared he was going to try for full custody for Ezra still pained him. The friends Maude had been with had apparently been lawyers. He was surprised that the judge had sided with her, seeing how irresponsible she was when it came to taking care of their son.  
He never got the chance to explain to Ezra what had happened to him. Why he left the house that day and never came back. All the other things he wanted to teach him. The car accident that took his life was sudden, taking him and his girlfriend quick. They died by the careless drunk driver that swerved in their lane going thirty over the speed limit.  
Ezra had expected that to be it, but he saw the face of his first step-father.  
The man had been kind to him while he was in his mother’s presence, but once it was just the two of them, he was constantly being yelled at for doing everything that he did, wrong. When he tried to tell his mom, he was told to stop lying. After that, his step-fathers consisted of men who either ignored, hit him, or shipped him off to boarding school. The period between marriages, he was sent to live with relatives or friends of his mother. Most of them weren’t pleased at having to watch him, shown in how they would either dismiss him, treat him poorly like the help, or lock him in closest or basements till he stopped crying. ~  
Ezra was relieved when Josiah let him go and he opened his eyes. He wasn’t feeling any closure, but pent-up anxiety. Remembering the darkness, the abuse and neglect. It made it hard to forgive his mother even after seeing her side. His father’s side gave him a perspective he had never seen before, barely remembering the man that was in his life almost as brief as some of the other men his mother married.   
Ezra did however notice that Standish wasn’t his mother’s maiden name. That she had kept it after James had died. Her little way in remembering him.  
“Are you going to be alright?” Josiah’s deep baritone voice brought him out of his thoughts.  
“Not sure I can answer that question at the moment. I’m sure I will however.” He gave the other man a smile.  
“You know, the six of us represent the parts of our lives that were also difficult for us. While our experiences are different and I can’t begin to understand what you’ve been through. Know that we will always be there for you.”  
“Thank you, Josiah.” Ezra smiled sadly.  
Josiah didn’t wait before pulling Ezra into a bear hug that lasted a while before he disappeared and Ezra was enveloped in warmth. A couple minutes passed before Ezra was ready to start the car.  
Maybe things were not going to be as easy as he had thought.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry for taking so long to write the next chapter. I will do my best to update this quicker.

Ezra opened the door to his apartment door to find his mother on the other side.  
“I wasn’t expecting you.” Ezra said flatly.  
“Well I figured I would stop by before heading out.”  
“You’re leaving town again?”  
“Yes, opportunity waits for no one.” Maude smiled and seemed to be waiting for Ezra to ask her not to leave or something. Maybe to do their usual farewells where he kisses her on the cheek and she reminds him to look out for only him.  
“Mother—” Ezra stopped himself. Thoughts of his mother’s past now known to him as well as his father’s. He didn’t know what to say. Only what he generally said when she left him, “Take care.”  
Maude only smiled before turning around and walking back out. Ezra slowly closed the door.   
“It’s best that she don’t know you know.” Came Vin’s voice from behind him.  
“I surmised as much.” Ezra gave a weak smile to the other man. “It would be difficult to explain who I learned that information. Though it would’ve been interesting to watch the expressions on her face.” After the moment died, Ezra understood why Vin was standing there by himself. “You’re next then.”  
“I would say, ‘save the best for last’ and pretend it’s me. Though I know it’s just me not ready to go yet.”  
Ezra walked across the room as if he were in an outside body experience before finding his couch and settling down.  
“Have you been able to find the others that have left?”  
“Nope, but I guess that’s the point. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”  
Ezra swallowed the growing lump in his throat.  
“Reckon we best start before we change our minds.” Vin grunted as he sat down next to Ezra. They joined hands and Ezra closed his eyes. “I will be revisiting your unstable life growing up.”

~Ezra was five, seated in the back of his mother’s chair, watching his mother talk to someone he didn’t know. The person didn’t appear happy at the conversation. Beside him, he had his suitcase packed his belongings. His mother said he’d be staying at a friend’s house until both his father and mother had gotten enough money to afford better living arrangements.  
When his mother returned to the car, pulling his door opened, he looked up with big wet eyes.  
“Please can I stay with you and daddy? I promise I’ll behave.”  
“I don’t have time to have you begging. You know how much I hate that.” Maude snapped.   
Ezra bit his bottom lip and pulled his seatbelt off. He pulled out his suitcase which felt heavier for some reason and pulled it towards the house. When he turned around to get a hug and kiss from his mother, Ezra found his mother halfway in the car already. Shoulders slumping, he watched as she turned the car on and drove off. Not so much as a wave.  
Looking back towards the house he was staying in, the person who his mother had been talking to was gone. The door was slightly ajar.

A month passed living in the house. Meals were scarce and always small. The college students he was living with usually threw parties and since he couldn’t attend, he was locked up in a backroom until it was over. Sometimes they forgot until morning to unlock it and he had been holding his bladder the entire time. Once he couldn’t hold it and had an accident. The hand that slapped him across the face sent him hitting the wall and for a minute he was in a daze. After that he had to clean up his mess.  
When his mother came and got him, Ezra was determined to do everything possible not to go back to stay with those people.  
Only a few months passed before his mother found some distant relative that he could stay with. It was a distant cousin. The father seemed nice enough, sometimes offering him sweets. The rubbing his back he felt nice as well as the shoulder squeezes. That was until he grew uncomfortable with the continued touches. No one believed him and if he claimed that the father was touching him inappropriately, he would be sleeping outside until his mother came and got him. The advances continued and all little Ezra could do was push through it and stay out of the man’s way as much as possible. He took to sleeping in weird spots because the sleeping bag he slept in wasn’t even safe.  
That house, Ezra hated more than anything. Two months passed before his mother showed up to take him. After that, his family was together for five years before his father left suddenly. His mother began dating a lot of men and they began to move once more. Sometimes they’d sleep in the car. Other times old motels that had questionable sheets. When his mother said that she had to ‘work’ meaning a con, she’d send him away. Lonely days without anyone to talk to had him create imaginary friends. He pretended to play poker against them. His goal was to be good enough to help his mother in her work so that she wouldn’t leave him behind.  
When she married a rich business man, his new step-father sent him to boarding school. Ezra was excited to make new friends, but he found that no one wanted to talk to him. There was an invisible circle and he wasn’t in it.  
Instead of letting the loneliness get to him again, he remembered his imaginary friends and if anyone asked what he was doing on the weekends, he could say he was hanging out with his friends. The day his mother suddenly showed up at his boarding school and took him away had him confused, until she told him that she had divorced his step-father. She also added with a smile, took five thousand dollars in the divorce. His mother did this for several relationships and Ezra found a routine, never getting attached to one place because it was only temporary.   
It affected his adult life, still on the move constantly. He never felt like he could settle in one life for too long before figuring it was time to leave. Ezra ran his own cons, taking after his mother’s lessons. He learned how to manipulate and never trust any man. He didn’t uphold women either, but he kept that to himself.   
All he could think about was that he didn’t want to disappoint his mother and have her leave him… for good. ~

Ezra opened his eyes and felt Vin let go.  
“You know, each of your experiences are not that far from what we’ve had to go through.”  
“Josiah said the same thing.”  
“How about next time we meet, I’ll tell you about it.” Vin grinned.  
“I thought after we finish we don’t—” Ezra was cut off by Vin hugging him suddenly. The warmth enveloped him and he felt kind of sad he wouldn’t be seeing the man again.   
However, Vin felt sure they would. Did he know something the others didn’t?


	13. Chapter 13

A full week passed without seeing Chris or JD. Ezra wondered why Chris would be stalling, figuring him to be next up. With nothing to do besides wait, Ezra visited places where he could join in a few poker games. It wouldn’t do to slack off just because his imaginary friends were stalling.  
Lord, he sounded crazy. It was to end soon. All he had to do was wait for Chris and JD to come and then everything would go back to normal. Frowning, Ezra tried to understand what ‘normal’ was for him. Yes, he moved around with no real place to call home and no friends to miss, but that was it.  
“Ezra.”  
He spun around, having been walking to his car after a late poker game. It was Chris and JD. Chris had been the one speaking.  
“It doesn’t have to be this way. I can make this work now that I know.” Ezra insisted.  
“We can’t stay!” Chris growled, “It ain’t gonna help anybody.”  
“At least you wouldn’t have to go away! That’s why you’ve been stalling, correct? If I just accept this, then no one has to be alone.”  
Ezra probably looked like a complete fool, energetically talking to air. The people who walked passed him gave him weird looks. He put his hands down to his sides and looked to his car. “We can talk on the way to the apartment.”  
Before Ezra got in, he found JD happily sitting shot gun with Chris scowling in the backseat. He tried not to smile at the brooding man and slipped behind the wheel.  
“Ezra, I get what you’re saying, and I’m sure Chris does too.” JD looked back to Chris before continuing, “However, Chris has a point. People will really think something’s wrong with you, and we don’t want that. So please, you’re almost to the end. Don’t give up.”  
“Give up? Me allowing you all to leave is what I consider giving up.”  
“Ezra—”  
“No, listen. The time I spent with the six of you, I’ve never had that before. Never had any friends or someone I can be honest with. Now I can see this as you being my imaginary friends or what not, but the decision is mine to make in the end!”  
“JD no!” Chris shouted too late. JD had grabbed onto Ezra’s arm and immediately Ezra was thrown into his memories.

~The young Ezra was having trouble breathing, watching the door as he heard his parents argue. He heard his mother yelling at his father saying she was tired of everything and always being reminded of him whenever she sees her son and says his name.  
Ezra swallowed the huge lump in his throat as he heard his father yell back to his mother saying that she was acting immature and that she needed to grow up. The heated words continued with insults being thrown in and curses. His eyes watered with tears as he saw his mother rip the door open and give one look at him before walking away.  
“Pack your things Ezra, you and I are going away for a while.” Called his father as he crossed the room.  
“Don’t you dare touch my son!” his mother snapped as she came back into the room.  
“Clearly you’re an unfit mother.”  
“You’re the reason for all of this! If it hadn’t been for you I would’ve had a normal life!”  
“So let me take Ezra since you clearly don’t want us to ruin your life.”  
“As if I’d let you keep him. Who’s been the one caring for him while you’re out working? Who carried him for nine months?”  
“Don’t think I don’t know you’ve been ‘caring for him’ by dropping him off at people’s houses while I was away at work.”  
“You think you earned the money to afford this place by yourself?” Maude scoffed.  
“Please.” Ezra said softly that his parents almost missed it, “Please don’t argue. I promise not to cause any trouble for you.”  
“You think either of us would be considered fit parents?” Maude said in a calmer tone, “We’d both lose. He’s my son. He’ll have your name, but if you don’t leave, I will make sure you never see him again.”  
James glared at Maude and then looked at Ezra who was turning his head with wide teary eyes as his parents continued. He gave a frustrated sigh and walked out. That was the last day he saw his father.  
His mother never let him ask about his father, and he never heard from him.  
When he was in his room reading, his mother came in to talk to him. He sat up straight and swung his legs back on the floor.   
“Ezra, from here on out, things will be difficult. If you don’t want to be sent to live with relatives, then you’re going to have to forget all these childish things and grow up fast. Do you understand?”  
Ezra looked at the Winnie the Pooh book he had been reading and nodded solemnly. 

About two years later he had gotten used to sneaking away for an hour to spend time with his imaginary friends. He didn’t want his mother to find out and say that he was being childish and send him away. It was the only time he allowed himself to cry, though he knew it was risky. If his mother found him, he would be in trouble. Emotions were for the weak and he wasn’t weak.   
Eventually he out grew his imaginary friends and never thought of them again. He never allowed himself to cry again. ~

“I’m sorry.” Ezra heard JD’s voice that sounded distant. He then felt the warmth caress his body before he was cold again.  
“Ezra!” It was Chris’s voice this time. He sounded worried.   
Why was that?  
“Ezra, you need to keep your eyes open!”  
Why was Chris telling him he needed to keep his eyes open?  
Where was he exactly?

The moment he realized he couldn’t move his body made him panic which probably didn’t do anything good for him. He passed out, hearing Chris trying to call him back.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So I was confused where this story was going to end when I had started... Have them just be his imaginary friends and he was going crazy a little like in the Beautiful Mind movie. (hated how that movie turned out btw). I'll just leave you all to decide on where to get off on this crazy train. Read till it ends if you want (when I'm finished uploading), or after Chris (this one). Thanks for reading and being so supportive of Ezra. I'd rather be crazy seeing the boys too.

“Why do I feel strange? Like I can’t move my body?”  
“Ezra?”  
“Chris? What happened? Where am I?”  
“In a hospital. JD took you under while you were driving. I couldn’t stop him in time and you crashed. Ran off the road.”  
“Was anybody else hurt?”  
“Just you.”  
“Thank goodness.”  
“Ezra. You aren’t awake.”  
“I beg your pardon?”  
“You’re in a coma.”  
“Then how am I talking to you?”  
“I’m your imagination. I’m not real.”  
“How do I wake myself up?”  
“How would I know.”  
“This can’t be how it ends.”  
“No one really wants it to end like this. Hell, no one wants to experience the end ever.”  
“So what should I do?”  
“I will take you through your last journey and if you want, I can take you with me if you wish.”  
“You mean die?”  
“Whatever you want to call it.”  
Ezra thought it over, “Show me what you have to and I will decide at the end.”  
“Death and Depression is what I have for you.”  
~This vision wasn’t decades old like the rest. It was only a few years ago. Just when Ezra had reached his lowest point. He had been on the fence about taking his life but always stopped because he wasn’t brave enough. No one would miss him. Heck, his mother probably wouldn’t care that he was gone. She would no doubt say he did it to himself, drove himself to the edge because he wasn’t strong enough. There would be no one to mourn his death. No funeral, no tears.   
Ezra’s first attempt was trying to overdose, but he threw them back up and just curled up in a ball of misery. The next day he went to the bar and sat at the front, drinking away his frustration. The man beside him seemed to be doing the same. Ezra had made up a story in his head that the man probably was suffering too. Probably wanted to end his own life.  
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get a clear image of his face. Though before this, every person’s face was perfectly clear, even ones he barely remembered. Why was this one different?  
“What you looking at?”  
Those words. That phrase. Ezra remembered Chris saying the exact same thing!  
Instead of talking to the man in black, young Ezra apologized and finished his drink before leaving.   
His second attempt, he decided to use a gun, but there was the possibility of him still surviving and just be disabled for the rest of his life. If he thought his mother considered him a burden when he was growing up, she would want nothing to do with him like that. So instead he drank. He drank and did his best to turn off all emotions. He was still depressed, but bottled it up, always putting on a front for the person he was conning but the biggest person he was conning was himself.  
A year later he got worse. His mother’s words of ‘appearances are everything were probably the only thing that kept him from cutting himself. Instead he would pinch the skin right between his inner elbow. When it finally bruised, he moved to the other arm and began again. He stopped eating, began treating alcohol like meals and a cop that pulled him over for being over the illegal limit finally knocked some sense into him. ~  
“I met you.” Ezra said at the end.  
“You met or saw all of us at some point. You just didn’t realize it. How else did you think you came up with our faces?”  
“And the names?”  
“It’s time to decide. Stay or cross over with me? We’d all be together again.”  
Ezra thought it over. It was what he had wanted, but then…  
“You told me that I had to move on from you. That I needed to live my life.”  
“I did.”  
“So why are you telling me to die?”  
“It’s what you’ve wanted for a long time isn’t it? This way, all your friends will be waiting for you on the other side.”  
Ezra couldn’t believe it, “Are you some kind of reaper or something now? Is that why you’re wearing black all the time? You’ve been waiting to take me for years now!”  
“You’re so dramatic. I’m not a reaper.”  
“I can’t. As much as I want to, I can’t do it. I can’t die.”  
“Really? It’s never going to get easier than this. Just let it all go.”  
“But I can’t! Neither should any of you just accept this! I need to wake up!”

 

The nurse walked into the room of the coma patient and her mouth opened in surprise. She called for help and they removed the assisted breathing tubes. The man was getting better.   
“It’s a miracle. I never thought he’d wake up.” She said, looking down at the blond-haired man.  
Other nurses raced down the hall. Soon, there were reports of half a dozen coma patients beginning to breathe on their own and showing signs of recovery. The recent coma patient hadn’t been in for very long, but since his arrival, the head nurse secretly felt that he somehow was the reason for the change in the others.

Ezra woke up, eyelids heavy as he tried to open them. The nurses all seemed cheerful for some reason. They asked how he was feeling and talked amongst themselves when they thought he couldn’t hear them. Something about him possibly being the reason several other coma patients were now waking up after months. Some of them had been in there for as much as over two years.  
Two years. Ezra couldn’t imagine that. The family must’ve gone through hell, hoping they’d wake up.  
He took it easy the first few days. Keeping to himself and waiting until he had recovered enough to leave. He hated hospitals.   
One afternoon, the nurse who was caring for him came in to take him for fresh air. Though he didn’t really want to, being out of his room sounded nice.  
Ezra could only call it the sly tactics of the nurses to get him as well as six other men out into the hospital gardens for ‘fresh air’. He could only surmise that these were the other patients who woke up around the same time as himself.  
The nurses probably, entertained that they had met on some spiritual level and brought each other back. Ezra was about to ask to be taken to another part of the garden, the noise level of one of the patients already giving him a headache, when he stopped and actually looked at the men.   
They all looked scruffy with facial hair and long hair covering their eyes. Some of them had made an attempt to pull it out of the faces while others didn’t seem to care. The voice though, was familiar.  
“JD?” he asked hesitantly.  
The young man turned his head to look at Ezra. He looked confused.  
“Do I know you?”  
“You’re JD Dunne, right? I’m Ezra.” Ezra smiled, relieved that it was actually him.  
JD looked confused.  
“I’m sorry, I don’t know an Ezra.”  
Ezra’s smile went away, replaced with a frown.  
He looked around and was able to pick out the others. He found Vin, and noticed that he was looking at him. He looked even more scraggly if that was possible with his beard.  
“Vin, you remember me, right?”  
“Figured it was a dream and you weren’t real. I don’t forget faces though.”  
Ezra tried talking to the others, but all he got were weird faces. They didn’t understand how Ezra knew their names, but for some reason, couldn’t dismiss the familiarity of them all being together.  
“Chris?” Ezra finally turned to the blond.  
“I’m tired. I’m heading back in.”


	15. Chapter 15

Ezra watched him leave without another word. He didn’t get any more progress with the others and soon asked to go back to his room. After his nurse left, he snuck back out and down the hall to where he found Chris Larabee’s room.  
He knocked twice before going in. Chris was standing next to the window looking out.  
“I guess I have to thank you then.”  
“For what?” asked Ezra, stepping further into the room.  
“For making me realize that I couldn’t give up.” Chris turned and looked at Ezra finally. He couldn’t read anything from his stone expression.  
“I did meet you three years ago.”  
“And a year later I tried to kill myself. Ended up in a coma. Who would’ve guessed? Since then I’ve been replaying that same scene over in my head. Until you actually said something different. After that, I stopped looking at the glass in front of me and at the world around me.”  
“We were all in that bar at the same time.” Ezra breathed. He hadn’t noticed. Three years ago, he had missed them all.   
“Don’t know how the others ended up sleeping away days, but for some reason, we were drawn to you while our bodies were here.”  
“So you don’t know what this all means or why it happened?”  
Chris shrugged, “Second chances I guess. For us to actually meet instead of missing each other.”  
“For you to finally make friends.” Came a voice behind Ezra. He turned around and found the other five men standing at the door. Nathan gave a smile that spoke of new understanding.  
“Couldn’t place the feeling. Only assumed it was a dream and that you were just pulling my leg. Vin here explained it.” Buck said with a huge smile of his own.  
“Makes for an interesting case.” Josiah nodded.  
“And you’re the reason we woke up, right? So, thanks for that.” JD added with a grin.  
“We all thank you.” Vin dipped his head slightly.  
Ezra looked at each of them, feeling overwhelmed, but it was nice.

 

“I’m sorry about asking, but how did we somehow mentally connect with Ezra? How did he see us if our bodies were in the hospital? Why did we only wake up after his accident and he finally did?” Nathan threw out question after question.  
“And what does it all mean?” asked Josiah.  
Nathan looked at the older man as if he were making fun of him. “I’m serious!”  
“So am I. This doesn’t usually happen I’m sure.”  
“And none of us have met before?” asked JD.  
“Wait, you don’t know Buck?” Ezra turned to the youngest in surprise. “You were playing pool with him.  
“Yeah but it was just a game. I wasn’t really paying attention to the guy. Only noticed he kept on hitting on all the girls. I stopped playing with him after that. Left early and then had my accident with my motorcycle.”  
“I knew of Chris. From back in college. Didn’t talk to him though.” Buck shrugged, “Everyone else is new to me.”  
“Vin seems to know a lot of what’s going on, or at least a better clue.” Nathan pointed out.  
The others all looked to Vin. He, like the rest of them, had shaved his beard and looked years younger.   
“I’ve heard from my grandfather once when I was little, that some people had the ability to speak to people pass the world.”  
“Cool.” JD said in wonder.  
“You don’t actually think Ezra has the ability to talk to the unconscious people, do you?” Nathan rose a skeptical brow.  
“I mean, the people he thought were his imaginary friends could’ve been real people that he had seen like us. Your mind doesn’t create something from the imagination without having some kind of reference.”  
“So Ezra, you have super powers!” JD bounced excitedly. “That’s awesome.”  
“What happens next then?”  
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could sure use a drink if you catch my drift.” Buck wiggled his eyebrows.  
“You still trying to hit on that bartender? What makes you think seeing you will make a difference?” JD rolled his eyes.  
The other men laughed and things slowly began to feel like they did before they were all visible. When they were finally all discharged, they decided to celebrate with drinks. Buck offered to buy, an ulterior motive to talk to Inez longer. Like JD predicted, Inez didn’t fall for the other man’s charms. After Buck had joined the others at the table, Ezra decided to hang back at the counter.  
“You seem to be doing better, sir.” She observed.  
“That I am.” Ezra smiled, looking over at the table of men waiting for him to join them. “Can I ask you something.”  
“Sure.”  
“You can finally see them now correct?”  
“The men at the table, yes?”  
“Good.” Ezra let out a sigh.  
“Not sure what is going on really…”  
“Truth is, I don’t either. All I know is that they were waiting for me to finally bring them back to the world of the living.”  
Inez was confused at what he was talking about, but she figured that as long as the guy was happy, it was alright.

Ezra went home that night, happier than ever. He didn’t know what to do with himself for the next few hours before bed, but he knew he couldn’t fall asleep yet. A ring from his phone had him stop his rummaging through the fridge and answer it.   
“This is Standish.”  
“Ezra.” It was Vin. “I think something’s wrong.”  
“What is it?” Ezra frowned and stopped what he was doing and close the fridge door.  
“I don’t think everything is completely—”  
“Vin!” Ezra called into the speaker.  
He was met with silence on the other end for a full minute.  
“— fine. I think…” Vin stopped talking and looked up. Ezra nearly dropped his phone he was in shock. Vin had suddenly appeared in his kitchen, still talking into his phone. They looked at each other, too confused to even know what to say until Vin finally broke it. “Things are still acting freaky.”

THE END  
Hate me if you want to  
Till next time…. But while I’m brainstorming the next part of the series, enjoy my other stories. You can offer suggestions too.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: These are split up and are short, but they build anticipation I guess... I'm sure not that many people are going to guess where I'm going with this story. MWAHAHAAHAHA (can't spell evil laugh)


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